Field of the Invention
One disclosed aspect of the embodiments relates to an information processing apparatus in which a bus structure can be changed, and to a control method for the information processing apparatus.
Description of the Related Art
A ring bus is known as a bus structure, of transmitting data in a single direction, in which a plurality of modules is connected to buses forming a ring shape. In some cases, the structure of the ring bus needs to be changed.
As a conventional method of changing the ring bus structure, a method discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-8541 is known as the method, of changing the ring bus structure, in which a master module outputs data for changing the bus structure to a data transmission path, and the bus structure is changed in a slave module.
More specifically, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-8541 discusses a structure in which a plurality of modules is connected to each other in a ring form via a plurality of paths, and processing is executed in a manner such that the path of the ring bus is switched in accordance with data input. This method discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-8541 is for a configuration in which the path of the ring bus is to be selected for connecting required modules in the plurality of modules provided in advance. Therefore, a new module cannot be added once the structure is established.
Thus, a ring bus structure, having a configuration in which a function of an image forming apparatus is extended with a module which is connected to a ring bus via a connector, has been desired to be capable of easily changing the ring bus in both of a case where a new module is connected via the connector and a case where a module is not connected.